SCIENTIFIC TAXIDERMY FOR MUSEUMS. 421 



groups of mammals on exhibition at the Museum, and I will select that 

 magnificent piece of fcaxidermic work seen in the moose group. A 

 number of these massive cervidine animals have actually been mounted 

 with the most perfect surroundings of their natural habitat in one great 

 interesting collection, all under a single glass case. They are, probably 

 without exception, altogether the finest series of mounted moose in this 

 or any other country. 



The act of the young buck riding down a sapling has been questioned 

 by some, but I believe that the practice of the animal to accomplish that 

 feat in order to reach the delicate foliage of the tree can be well sub- 

 stantiated. 



Hornaday has said of this piece in his Taxidermy (pp. 246, 247) : 



The setting represents a section of the moose woods of upper Canada, in which 

 the larger animals are hrowsing on the tender twigs of the white birch. The 

 animals have come together at the edge of a hog, which is growing full of a 

 gigantic species of grayish moss peculiar to that locality. The time represented is 

 the middle of autumn. The few leaves that remain on the maple saplings have 

 been painted with October's most gorgeous tints of crimson and yellow, mixed 

 with green, and the leaves of the white birch have turned pale yellow. The ground 

 is plentifully strewn with leaves of bright tints, through which the green moss of 

 moist banks shows in patches here and there. 



Of the animals, the three largest — and huge beasts they are, truly — are feeding 

 upon the birch twigs. A yearling calf is licking the head of a tiny brown-coated 

 younger brother, while a two-year-old bull is in the act of "riding down" a stout 

 birch sapling in order to get at the branches of its top, which would otherwise be- 

 beyond his reach. 



Three of these fine specimens were collected by Col. Cecil Clay, of 

 Washington, and by him presented to the Museum for this group, 

 together with the trees, moss, and other accessories, which he collected 

 with infinite labor and care in the moose woods. He also furnished us 

 with field notes and critical advice throughout, which had much to do 

 in making the group what it is — a monument to Col. Clay's skill and 

 prowess as a sportsman, and to his deep interest in Alces malehis. It 

 is to be sincerely hoped that other sportsmen will follow the colonel's 

 admirable example, and aid the museums in which they are most inter- 

 ested to secure some attractive groups. There can be no doubt what- 

 ever as to theperfectness in which these animals are mounted and pre- 

 served, and they are apparently in their external forms very true to 

 nature. While we have the taxidermy of the Cervidre under consid- 

 eration, however, it would appear to be as well to refer to one great 

 common defect that we have frequently observed made by taxidermists 

 in them, and that is the lack of care that is sometimes evident in the 

 proper handling of the lacrymal depression in these animals, or in 

 other words, the pit which occurs in so many of them just anterior to 

 the distal canthus of the eye. I have seen plenty of deer heads which, 

 from an artistic standpoint were otherwise very creditable pieces of 

 work, but in which this fossa had been almost or quite obliterated. It 



